Illustration: Il Garofalo (Italian: il ɡarofalo, a Late-Renaissance-Mannerist Italian painter
Pope Leo’s Regina Caeli: 7th Sunday of Easter
St. Peter’s Square – May 17, 2026
Acts 1:1-11
In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit and was taken up to heaven.
He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations:
for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God.
When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the father had promised.
Jesus had said ‘It is what you have heard me speak about: John baptized with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
Now having met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’
As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight.
They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said,
‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky?
Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven,
this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’
Gospel of the Ascension (Matthew 28:16-20)
The eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’
Pope Leo’s Regina Caeli for 7th Sunday of Easter
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated in many countries around the world.
The image of Jesus rising from the earth and ascending to heaven can make us perceive this mystery as distant. (1st reading above)
In reality, however, this is not the case.
In fact, we are united with Jesus as members of the same body, and his ascension to heaven draws us closer to him and to full communion with the Father.
St Augustine said the following in this regard: “The fact that the Head goes forward is a hope for the members”.
The whole life of Christ is a movement of ascension, through which he embraces and engages with the entire reality of the world through his humanity.
He lifts and redeems humanity from its state of sin, bringing light, forgiveness and hope to places where darkness, injustice and despair once reigned.
In this way, he brings about the final victory of the Passover, in which the Son of God ‘destroyed our death by his death and restored our life by rising again’. (1 Corinthians 1:10). (Easter Preface).
Thus, the Ascension does not speak to us of a distant promise, but of a living bond that draws us towards heavenly glory.
In this life, it broadens and exalts our horizons, bringing our thinking, feeling and acting ever closer to the heart of God.
(John 14:1-6 – 1 “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
3 when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be.
4 And you know the way where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.).
We know the path of this upward journey.
We find it in Jesus: in the gift of his life; in his example; and in his teachings.
We also see it in the Virgin Mary and the saints — both those whom the Church presents as universal models, and those whom Pope Francis liked to call ‘saints from the neighborhood’.
These are the people with whom we share our daily lives: fathers, mothers, grandparents, and people of all ages and backgrounds who sincerely strive to live the Gospel with joy and commitment.
With their support and thanks to their prayers, we too can learn to ascend to heaven day by day.
We can do this by making “all that is true […] what is just […] what is acceptable” the object of our thoughts, as St Paul says in Philippians 4:8.
With God’s help, we can also put into practice what “we have heard and seen” (v. 9).
In this way, the life of God that we received in baptism will develop within us and around us.
This life constantly draws us upwards towards the Father.
We will spread the precious fruits of communion and peace throughout the world.
May Mary, Queen of Heaven, help us/
May she illuminate our path and guide us along it at every moment.
